Category: Important Stuff

Who’s off to the Royal Albert Hall tomorrow for David’s Teenage Cancer Trust gig, then? Do tell.

We all know about this iconic and historic venue by now, David has played there many times, but you might not know quite as much about the charity that will benefit. (Sadly, we all know about cancer because the invasive little bastard keeps attacking and hurting the ones we love most, be they young or old.)

Patron and Who legend, Roger Daltrey, has been the force behind the shows since the start, and this is the 16th year that the charity’s annual events – music as well as comedy, always at the Royal Albert Hall – have raised much-needed funds to assist with their mission: to reach every young person with cancer in the UK. They seek to do this through a team of quite brilliant youth support coordinators, who, among other things, keep spirits up and arrange family support sessions, as well as expert nurses in specialist hospital units (designed to be funky and fun places, complete with guitars, jukeboxes, pool tables and gaming facilities), where patients are treated as young people first, cancer patients second.

To build on this, because the sad truth is that they don’t reach half as many patients as they could, they need to raise £20 million by 2020. These gigs will really help with that.

They say that around seven young people aged between 13 and 24 are diagnosed with cancer every single day in the UK. Those years are hard enough, we can all recall the difficulties of being a teenager, without the bombshell of cancer throwing a life that’s only just begun into complete disarray.

If you’d like to make a donation, however small, you can do so with just a few clicks – here. You might like to buy something from their web shop, such as, for example, the very fetching limited edition merchandise designed and created for this year’s Royal Albert Hall gigs. What finer keepsake could there be?

Of course, you could fundraise or even volunteer. Maybe there’s someone fundraising in your area, or doing something that you particularly admire, who you could sponsor; I’m sure they’d really appreciate the extra encouragement. Have a look and read why they’re giving their time. (A word of warning: you will cry.)

Have a great night on Sunday and be sure to tell us all about it, won’t you?